


Cold Mess

by ClaudiaWrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Lots of argument, MWPP, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romance, Snape Bashing, jily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:22:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28498260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaudiaWrites/pseuds/ClaudiaWrites
Summary: James and Lily are thrown into detention together after getting caught arguing in the corridors past midnight.
Relationships: James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 37
Kudos: 149





	Cold Mess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlickScondiblick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlickScondiblick/gifts).



> Happy Belated Birthday to the most wonderful person and a brilliant writer! I love you so very much, Clara. Thank you for always brightening up my days with your encouraging words and making me smile with all the adventures you get up to. Hope you enjoy this!

**Cold Mess**

“Psst, Lily!”

Lily whipped around, eyes narrowing as she stared at the long, empty corridor, wand clutched tightly in her hand. The hair at the back of her neck prickled. “Potter?”

“ _James_ ,” the amused voice corrected, a bodiless messy-haired head popping out from thin air beside her. Lily clutched a hand to her heart, taking a steadying breath as she adjusted to the highly strange sight. She glared at the cheeky grin he threw her way.

“ _Potter_ ,” Lily said pointedly, turning around and walking briskly down the corridor, “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“I _am_ head boy, you know.”

“But it’s not your rounds tonight.”

“I know that,” James’s voice floated beside her, but Lily didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him again, “ergo the cloak, you see.”

“No, I _don’t_ see actually. Why are you out of bed? I ought to take off points.”

“But you won’t.”

“Don’t tempt me, James.”

She could hear the grin in his voice when he spoke next. “You called me James.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake—” Lily rolled her eyes, hating herself as she turned around to frown at the empty space behind her. She didn’t know where to focus her eyes since James had already returned back under the cloak, but hoped her frustration carried across to him nonetheless. “What do you want?”

“You know what I want.”

“You’ll have to spell it out for me, please.”

“I had to talk to you.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“Lily.”

“What?” She leaned against the wall beside her, sighing loudly. “And can you take off the bloody cloak, please? I feel like a right idiot talking to the air.”

“Sorry,” James mumbled, sliding off the shimmery material and shrinking it so that it fit inside his pocket. Lily blinked at the boy before her, his tall frame, the hazel eyes, and the slight downturn to his mouth as he looked at her with a solemn expression, his earlier cheeriness gone. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“For upsetting you.”

Lily ground her teeth together. “ _And_?”

There was a slight pinch to his lips. “Mostly that.”

“Alright then,” She bit out, turning around and walking away.

James jogged up to her. “Come on, Lily. Can’t you let it go?”

“I _have_ let it go.”

“So, you’re not mad at me anymore?”

She couldn’t keep the snap out of her voice no matter how hard she tried. “You’re a smart bloke, Potter, why don’t you figure that one out yourself?”

His frustrated groan rang out loudly.

Lily wasn’t about to entertain his growing temper—for hers was definitely on a higher scale than his—despite how much it bothered her. But James seemed to have other plans. His hand reached out and wrapped itself around her wrist, turning her around to face him. It’d been a while since they’d had one of their standoffs, and Lily wasn’t accustomed to craning her neck quite as much while still trying to look imposing.

“What’s the _matter_ with you?”

“What’s the matter with _me_?” She scoffed, eyes looking around incredulously like she was hoping someone would join in on her disbelief. But the castle slept on around them, darkness littering the stone walls. “That’s _really_ rich, considering what you did today. What you got away with. What’s the matter with _you_ , James?”

“I did what I thought was right.”

“Doesn’t seem like you thought at all, if I’m being honest. You were impulsive, reckless, and _cruel_.”

“I don’t understand you, Lily!” James’s frustrated voice rang out, and he was properly fuming now, face red like she hadn’t seen in ages. “Are you _actually_ standing there calling _me_ cruel when that—that fucking bastard—”

“I don’t care! The fact is that _you_ hexed _him_ , and he’s in the hospital wing now, along with his mates. Whatever he did, his actions don’t absolve you of yours, James. I never claimed Snape to be a saint but—”

“And yet it took you no time to let your temper fly with _me_! When he and his little Death Eater buddies clearly deserved it. But _no_ , Merlin forbid _I_ ever stand up to them.”

She scoffed again, trying to conceal how his words were dragging a knife through her heart. “You can’t be serious! Are you really suggesting that I treat Snape better than I treat you?! That I _care_ for him more than I care for you?!”

“Well, he _was_ your best friend not too long ago, wasn’t he?”

“Wow,” Lily shook her head, bitterness spilling from her tongue, “You’re a right prat, you know that? All I want is for you to not get into trouble, to not lose your badge over reckless bullshit. But you’ve gone and made this whole thing about me when it’s actually _you_ and your fucking insecurity that keeps you from seeing what I’m actually upset about!”

“Of course!” James said derisively, “Go on. Go ahead and tell me that I can’t help showing off, that I only jinxed Snape because of my vendetta against him and not because the bastard deserved it. You’re a _coward_ , Lily. _You’re_ the one that refuses to admit what’s in front of you because you’re too busy being stuck inside your own damn head!”

“MR. POTTER!” A loud noise interrupted the words that were already on the tip of Lily’s tongue. She watched in horror as McGonagall strode out of a room from a few feet down the corridor, her hair in a nightcap and an emerald green robe wrapped tightly around her frame. “YOUR DISREGARD FOR RULES IS UTTERLY ASTONISH— _MS. EVANS?!_ ”

It was only in hindsight that Lily would reflect how foolishly they had strayed close to McGonagall’s quarters on the first floor during their argument.

“Good evening, Professor,” She said, surprised to find her voice shaking. She hadn’t realized she was so close to tears, the anger from her fight with James quickly morphing into hurt and humiliation. “We’re so sorry.”

“I don’t believe this!” McGonagall strode forward, her lips pressed tightly into a thin line as she stared at them with unrestrained anger, “ _both_ the head students, not only out of bed well past midnight but creating enough ruckus to wake the entire castle! I would’ve _never_ expected this of you two. _Especially_ you, Ms. Evans.”

“We’re sorry, Professor,” Lily repeated again, finding it difficult to speak around the enlarging ball lodged inside her throat. “I was just completing my rounds and Potter joined me to help. I guess we lost track of time—”

“I can see that!” McGonagall cut across her sternly, “ _Clearly_ , you were too _lost_ in hollering at each other to consider the appropriateness of your actions or the consequences it might hold. Honestly, I’d hoped working with each other this year would’ve helped bring an end to these childish rows of yours. I’m disappointed!”

“It won’t happen again, Professor,” James said, speaking up for the first time since he’d expelled his tirade. His eyes were trained on Lily even as he spoke to McGonagall, “It was my fault anyway, I goaded Lily—”

“I think you’ll find that teaching you students for the past seven years has given me a good idea of how things work, Potter. Ms. Evans is not the kind to sit quietly and let you _goad_ her into fights, as you so put it,” Her nostrils flared. “Detention. Both of you. You can meet Mr. Filch tomorrow at 7 PM in front of the trophy room. And twenty points from Gryffindor.”

Lily didn’t have the energy or the will to argue. “Yes, Professor.”

“I expect you to do much better. The younger students look up to you both as their role models,” McGonagall said, her tone slightly softer, “Now off to bed, and I better not hear a word out of you two until daylight.”

Lily didn’t need to be told twice. She muttered a hurried goodnight and spun on her heel, fleeing the scene before James had a chance to say anything more.

She didn’t doubt that he could easily catch up to her at any moment—both due to the fact that he was _much_ faster than her and also that he knew the hundreds of secret passages inside Hogwarts like the back of his hand—but by some miracle, he didn’t follow her.

Lily didn’t know what it said about her that it made her feel even worse.

* * *

The next day passed in a blur of activities for Lily.

She felt rather wretched for the most part of it, attending classes and eating her meals in relative silence, much to Mary’s growing concern and curiosity. But no matter how much her friend tried to prod her into sharing, Lily didn’t know how to properly voice her thoughts without giving away the conflicting emotions that continued raging inside her head.

It was made worse by the fact that James was pointedly ignoring her, a phenomenon she hadn’t experienced in all her years at Hogwarts.

Even when Sirius tried to forcefully make him join their table during lunch or when Remus politely called her over to ask for help with their Skele-Gro potion, James had hurriedly mumbled some excuse about needing to go to the loo and rushed away.

The sun had dipped over the horizon, and before she knew it, Lily found herself trudging down to the third floor, feeling nerves settle into her stomach at the thought of spending detention with James when he clearly wanted nothing to do with her.

He was already there by the time Lily arrived, bickering away with Filch with a kind of mischief that she realized—with a staggering pang—that she’d been missing since morning. As soon as he caught sight of her walking down the corridor, however, the amusement left James’s eyes, being replaced by an odd, closed-off look.

Lily almost turned around and left then, but refrained because she knew it would only lead to something worse, like _more_ detentions on top of McGonagall’s added wrath.

“Hurry up, you,” Filch snarled at her, “I haven’t got all day to be dallying around here.”

Lily made herself move faster, resolutely looking anywhere else but at the boy whose loud presence constantly demanded to be acknowledged.

“Hand over your wands,” Filch said with a gleeful sneer, entirely oblivious to the crackling tension around him. As they complied, Filch’s little eyes narrowed at James, almost as if suspicious at his lack of smart-arse remarks. “No funny business, Potter. I want the trophies gleaming when I’m back.”

“There are two of us here, you know,” James rolled his eyes, and Lily’s heart gave a pathetic little flip at his exasperated tone, “But fine, I’ll work extra hard so that you can kiss your reflection on them.”

It was only a matter of seconds before Filch had locked them inside the room with two buckets of soapy water after that, grumbling about devious students and the failing effects of lenient punishments—sadistic lines that Lily had heard one too many times over the years—before he’d left them alone.

Lily quietly made her way to the left side of the room, leaving James to take the right, making it entirely clear that they had a _long_ , painful two hours before them.

Finding no point in delaying the inevitable or wallowing in her misery, Lily got started on the task at hand. She wrung the wet rag and carefully polished the largest looking trophy on her side of the room, one belonging to Mr. Crispin Toothill for Special Services to the School several decades ago.

They continued working in silence for the better part of an hour, the time flying by more smoothly than Lily could have anticipated. In fact, she didn’t even see James emerge from his side after they had separated in the first few minutes.

Lily shrugged, pushing the thought away from her mind before she used the back of her palm to wipe the sweat gathering on her hairline. She moved onto the next case of trophies, annoyance flaring in her stomach as she noticed the huge splat of Drooble’s best blowing gum that someone had conveniently left on one of the plaques.

Occupied as she was glaring at the sight before her and feeling like sobbing at the thought of having to _touch_ that mess, it was only natural for Lily to scream in shock when the water fell on her.

When the bloody _disgusting_ , cold, soapy bucket of water was just _emptied_ all over her person with a gigantic splash that had her gasping for breath and spluttering rapidly at the same time.

She pushed aside the strands of wet hair curtaining her face with a curse ready on her tongue, “WHAT THE ACTUAL _FUCK_ —?!”

A delighted cackling voice sounded from somewhere above her, and Lily looked up to find Peeves the Poltergeist flying around her with unrestrained glee.

“THE HEAD GIRL’S HAIR IS A SMELLY AFFAIR!” He sang, floating around with the empty bucket, which he promptly dropped to the floor again with a loud clatter.

“What the fuck is going on here?” James’s voice rang out from her right before the boy himself came into view. His brows were furrowed, sweat glistening slightly on his forehead, and his hand clutching a dirty rag. Upon seeing the scene before him, his hazel eyes widened, mouth hanging open.

“Get _out_ , Peeves!” James yelled, glaring at the poltergeist with an air of dominance that Lily would not have expected him to show a fellow mischief-maker.

“Potter’s a rotter, his girlfriend smells like gutter,” Peeves teased, doing a flip in mid-air before flying away, his laughter still echoing around the room. 

Humiliation was crawling over Lily and taking root inside her at a rapid pace. Her heart was still pounding—the shock of the attack not having worn off completely—and she clenched her fists around her sopping wet robes, shaking slightly.

“Evans, are you okay?” She heard James ask as he took a step forward. His hand reached out toward her shoulder, “Lily?”

“Don’t _touch_ me!” She cried, whirling around and facing him with tears shining in her eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, but the shaky inhale only made her feel worse, “I’m disgusting. And what does it matter to you, anyway?”

“What do you mean, what does it matter to me?” James asked, affronted, “Of course it matters to me! I’m just—that was a cruel prank.”

“But you enjoy those, don’t you, James?” She said, too embarrassed and hurt to really think through what she was saying, “Cruel pranks are your _thing_. And so what if I feel like absolute trash right now? You couldn’t care less about my emotions.”

“Stop that,” James said, his voice deathly quiet.

Lily felt the blood pounding in her ears, and welcome the adrenaline, “stop what?”

“Saying things you don’t mean. Saying things you _know_ aren’t true.”

“Aren’t they? Are you going to pretend like you haven’t been ignoring me all day?”

“That’s not—”

“Are you going to act as if you didn’t basically tell me how pathetic and cowardly I am yesterday?”

“Lily—”

“Or that you _knew_ I didn’t want you cursing Snape and his mates but you went ahead and did it anyway for whatever foolish reason—”

“Will you shut up for _one bloody second_?!” James yelled, chucking the rag in his hand to the floor with a loud slap in frustration. Lily flinched, momentarily thrown by the anger in his voice. He strode forward, eyes hard and jaw clenched, until he was right in front of her, breathing hard, “ _I_ couldn’t care less about _your_ emotions?! Are you really saying that?”

Lily didn’t know what to _think_ anymore, let alone what she’d said.

“Well, I—I didn’t mean—exactly—”

“Because let me tell you now, Evans. I care about your goddamn emotions more than you could possibly know. But whatever happened with Snape? I’d do it again. I’d do it a billion times more in a heartbeat. And I don’t _care_ if you hate that. I don’t _care_ if you think I should’ve left well enough alone because I will _not_ tolerate their bloody prejudice—”

“What could they have _possibly_ said to set you off like this?!” Lily yelled, feeling frustrated beyond measure at his madman act.

She almost jumped when James’s hands reached out to grip her upper arms firmly—soapy water be damned—as if he wanted to shake her. She expected him to shout, to yell, to _actually_ shake her, but when the next words left his mouth, they were surprisingly soft and expressive and rattled Lily’s bones in a way that no manner of shaking ever could ever hope to do.

“They were talking about _you_ , Lily.”

It was like someone had doused her with cold water again and lit her up from inside at the same time. Her lips parted, a soft ‘oh’ escaping her before she could reign it in, and her eyes flitted over James’s face, _really_ taking in the steeliness of his eyes and the all-consuming emotions that swirled within the hazel depths.

“They always say things about me,” She tried to reason, voice coming out slightly breathlessly.

“That’s not—it was _bad_.”

“Can’t be much worse than their threats to kill me.”

If possible, the planes of his face hardened even more, a muscle ticking in his jaw, “It was. Mulciber and Avery were talking about Snape’s obsession with you, and when he said there was nothing there anymore, they said—they said he only needed to get you out of his system by—by— _fuck_ , if it makes no difference to you, Evans, I’d _really_ rather not say.”

“Tell me,” Lily prodded gently, raising her hand and placing it over his arm warily. “Tell me, it’s okay.”

“Except that it’s not!” He gritted out, and now Lily was able to recognize that the anger in his eyes had never been directed at her to begin with, “I can’t—I can’t talk about it without wanting to march down there and—and fucking _kill_ those bastards.”

James’s eyes flashed towards the door to the trophy room as if he was _actually_ considering making good on his words. Lily’s heart jumped in alarm and her grip on his arm tightened.

“Hey, look at me,” She waited until his gaze was trained on her face again, “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. They can’t hurt me.”

That got his expression to soften a little, until the smallest of smiles tugged on the corner of his lips, “Yeah, you could kick their arses in your sleep.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant, but sure,” Lily laughed, feeling relief spread through her body when James exhaled loudly, seemingly much calmer now. “But James, I don’t want you to—I mean, they’re just stupid words uttered by spineless cowards. You don’t need to worry about me. And you _definitely_ don’t need to get into fights in the corridors for me.”

“It wasn’t for you, Evans,” He said, looking at her ruefully, “I know you can handle yourself. It was just…”

“Just what?” She prodded when it didn’t look like he would continue.

But James was back to staring at her intently. The look in his eyes was drastically different from the ferocity of a few moments ago. “Just that I can’t—I _won’t_ tolerate hearing such shite about you. It makes me so _fucking_ angry that they think they can just say all this rubbish and get away with it.”

Lily couldn’t help the way her heart fluttered a bit at his words, entirely helpless in the face of such strong emotions. “Thank you,” she said softly, the hand on his arm sliding up to rest on the broad plane of his chest now, “And I’m sorry about the things I said. I didn’t mean them, you know.”

“Yeah?” He looked at her, and Lily felt his quickening heartbeat underneath her fingertips, pounding to match her own rhythm. “You sure I’m not an arrogant bullying toerag anymore?”

“Oh, you’re definitely arrogant,” She smirked, “But at a level I reckon I can tolerate.”

“Tolerate more than you tolerate the Giant Squid?”

“Pardon?” Lily asked, heart in her throat, “What exactly are you asking?”

“You’re a smart bird, Lily, why don’t you figure that one out yourself?” He whispered, leaning towards her with a searing look. Her eyes fluttered shut automatically at the proximity, his breath mingling with hers and making her brain turn to mush. His lips barely managed to brush against her own—the contact feather-light and electrifying at the same time—before Lily suddenly pulled away.

“James, wait.”

His groan of displeasure almost made her knees weak. “Another seven years?”

“Shut up, you idiot,” She laughed, “I just mean, I’m um—I’m really wet, James.”

“I’m flattered, Evans, but we haven’t even kissed yet.”

“Would you stop?!” She blushed as he sniggered, “I mean, this is not exactly ideal, is it? I smell like dirty dishwater. It’s gross!”

“Lily,” James smiled, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her flush against his body. Her squirms of protests turned to amused giggles when he started nuzzling his face against her hair, “I don’t _care_ , you madwoman. You’re perfect. See, now I smell like dirty dishwater, too.”

“James, that’s not—”

But, of course, she had already thrown her inhibitions to the wind. This time, when he leaned forward again, Lily was right there to meet him halfway, her feeble protests dying down when she finally _finally_ kissed James Potter.

When Filch reappeared several minutes later at the end of detention, it was to find the trophy room somehow messier than he’d left it, with the head students properly flushed and grinning broadly. They’d insisted it had been Peeves’ doing, but Filch was having none of it, and they’d earned themselves an extra hour of detention for the next day.

Lily couldn’t have asked for anything better.


End file.
